I Dare You
by gleefully-finchel
Summary: Rachel and Sam embark on a friendship.  But is it more than that for one of them?  Samchel friendship/humor. One shot.


**I Dare You**

**Rachel POV  
**

You hear someone singing in the locker room. It has to be Finn. No one else is here after practice this late. It can't hurt just to talk to him one more time. Convince him that you're sorry. This time he has to listen to you. If you corner him in the locker room, he can't just ignore you then.

So you walk right in, and immediately you hear the shower running. You should leave. Even if it is Finn it would be awkward to walk in on him in the shower. But then you hear the singing and you can tell it's not Finn. Who would be singing in here? You don't recognize the voice.

You venture forward and the boy comes into view. And oh my God what a body. Sam Evans is standing in the shower singing and you can't stop staring at him. You know you should run out of there before he sees you, but you can't stop yourself.

Suddenly you are snapped out of your trance by his voice. "Who's there?" You panic. You can't just run now but you try to turn around, kicking the trash can next to you. He looks up startled and sees you through his soap filled eyes. "Rachel, is that you?" You squeal loudly, feeling the warm color in your cheeks and you know that your face is turning different shades of red, but you can't speak so you quickly turn and run as fast as you can out of the locker room and down the hall until you reach the safety of your car.

And you thought it couldn't get any more awkward than running into Finn in the shower.

Halfway home you realize that you can't just run without talking to Sam at some point. It's not like you can just stay home the rest of the year just to stay away from him. You decide you will confront him tomorrow.

You see him go into the locker room alone and you know this is your only chance to catch him without anyone else finding out what happened. So you carefully slip in to the room once again telling yourself that you hope this time he is fully clothed. When you first step into the room he is standing at his locker and his shirt is off and once again you feel the warmth in your cheeks as you clear your throat.

"Excuse me Sam, can I have a moment with you" You barely recognize your own voice as you talk to him. He's looking at you now and you notice suddenly how blue his eyes are. You forget what you came to say to him. Words are not coming to you and you trip over your own tongue. "I wanted to come, er…see you, not that I didn't see you earlier, I mean, what I'm trying to say is….I'm sorry, I thought you were Finn."

He looks at you and starts to smile slightly at your embarrassment. You continue, "I needed to speak to Finn and when I heard singing, I thought it was him. I didn't expect to walk in on you in such a state of undress. I would have never walked in if I thought you were naked, showering, while singing. Not that I would have walked in on you even if you weren't showering, or singing…err…OR naked…but err." He starts to laugh and cuts you off. "Rachel, it's ok. You just startled me. You didn't have to run off like that."

You look at him dumbfounded. What did he expect you to do? Stay and watch. You tell him quickly that you are sorry again and start to leave. "Hey Rachel, did you ever find Finn?" You turn around confused. "Yesterday, when you were looking for him. Did you find him?" You tell him that he must have already left. And that it didn't matter anyway. Finn is still not speaking to you.

He starts to walk closer to you and almost whispers, "Maybe there is a reason you found me and not Finn." You look up at him confused and smile and quickly turn and walk out the door. What had gotten in to Sam Evans, and why were you still smiling thinking about him?

It's finally friday and you are walking through the halls trying to avoid anyone singing that stupid Rachel Black song when you see him. Sam. He's smiling at you and you stop and look behind you convinced that Quinn or Santana must be right behind you because there is no way he's standing there with that goofy grin directed at you. He starts to walk over to you and you hear him call your name right before Karofsky tosses the slushie in his face.

Without thinking, you quickly walk over to him and direct him to the nearest bathroom. It's a red slushie and red stains something fierce. You now have 3 training bras stained that same color so you know he needs to wash it off immediately. As soon as you get in the bathroom though, you know you made a mistake because he won't stop staring at you as you help wash him off.

"Thank you" he says. "You know we can't keep meeting like this." You look up at him confused. "In the bathroom, I mean. We seem to be spending a lot of time together in some form of restroom." You laugh. He would say that. He's always so funny. You smile at him and for the first time in a while you aren't sad. You've been missing Finn so much that you didn't notice how lonely you have been.

"What if I took you to dinner?" You are snapped out of your thoughts as he speaks again. Wait…What? Did Sam just ask you to dinner? No you must have misheard him. Maybe he asked you if you were looking thinner. That must be it, you have lost some weight lately due to all this Finn-stress!

"Rachel? Did you hear me? You, me, dinner?" "Whaa-at?" You manage to spit out. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea Sam. I mean I'm still trying to get Finn back and going to dinner with you would probably just ruin any chance I had and.." He stops you again. "Do you ever just say a simple sentence without over analyzing EVERYTHING? It's just dinner Rachel. What could possible go wrong?" He stops and gets this amazing grin on his face. "Come on Rachel…I dare you!"

"Sam Evans asking someone to dinner is not something you dare them to do!" You are in shock. What is wrong with him? Why would he ask you to dinner. You have hardly even spoken to him this year.

"Look Rachel, I know you have been having a hard time. I have too. We are both sort of in the same boat here. Me with Quinn, you with Finn. They did this to us you know. Both of us." And you finally understand him. He is having as much difficulty dealing with this as you are. They cheated on both of you in a way. Even if Finn wasn't with you, you really did think that you were working things out with him and he just went and kissed Quinn. Sam's Quinn. You finally feel like maybe you have an ally, someone who understands exactly how you feel right now. Mabye this dinner thing isn't such a bad idea. It's just dinner. And he is kinda cute. At least you might enjoy an evening for once instead of staring at a phone that is never going to ring.

"Fine, I accept your dare Sam Evans. But I warn you. I NEVER speak in simple sentences so you are in for a long evening" He looks at you and smiles. "I'm counting on that Rachel, I'm counting on that!"

The drive to Breadstix is completely awkward and neither of you say very much. He turns on the radio and you hear some country music blasting out of the speakers. He looks embarrassed and quickly turns the volume down. "Sorry, I don't remember having it up that loud." "It's ok, I like blasting my music and singing loudly in my car too" You smile over at him and he looks at the road again driving on in silence.

He gets your door for you as you step down from his truck. He grabs your elbow so that you don't fall over and you feel a spark travel up your arm. Suddenly you start to think that this dinner is a really bad idea. He holds the door open for you into the restaurant and you slide in nervously. As you get to your table you are starting to think about faking a phone call about a dead grandmother just so that you can run out of there.

He looks up at you with an intense look on his face and says "Rachel, Will you please just relax. Take your coat off, breath a bit, smile, and pretend you don't want to run out the door screaming if anyone sees you here with me!" He looks upset. And suddenly you feel bad. You don't want him to think you don't want to be here. You do. It's actually kind of nice eating out with someone besides your dads. Ever since Finn and you broke up your dinners have been very lonely.

"Sam, I'm sorry. I just haven't been out in public with anyone since Finn and I…." You trail off and he nods. You know he understands. So you take off your jacket and settle into the booth. "I get it Rachel." He pauses and then smiles, "You look really pretty tonight." And you are smiling so much at this point you feel like an idiot.

You don't know how it happend but you realize in the middle of the conversation that it went from awkward to Sam making impressions of Matthew McConaughey and you can't stop laughing as he is making a fool out of himself and neither of you care because you are both laughing so hard and its been ages since either of you have felt happy again.

It's been hours now and the waitress is looking at you both like she wants you to leave because she has kids to go home to and she's tired of bringing you water. "I'm glad we did this Rachel. It was fun. I haven't laughed this hard in…well in a while." You giggle. "I'm happy too Sam. I'm glad we did this. You are a really good friend." You swear you see his face drop a bit. You must have mistaken it.

"You know what I think we should do?" he asks. "Join a circus of traveling Na'vi?" I reply. He laughs loudly and the waitress makes another face at us. "No, I think we should sing together. In Glee. A duet. We have never done that and I love hearing you sing. You have the most amazing voice of anyone in the club. I guess I just want to see if I would be able to keep up with you." You can't believe he just complimented you so sweetly. "Sam, I would love to sing with you. I think that is a great idea. I will ask Mr. Shue if we can do it next week." "Great, I have the perfect song too." he says. You think to yourself that maybe this dinner dare didn't turn out so bad after all.

You are nervous as you sit in your chair waiting to sing. You never get nervous. But you look over at Sam and you don't want to mess up. You want this song to be good. For him. For you. To show everyone that you are ok. That your voice is not lost without Finn.

You need Finn to realize that you are strong. That you want him to be in your life, but you don't need him. You can get by and do what you love even if he isn't by your side. Only by being strong will he come back to you. You know this.

You look over at him and he looks confused as Sam leans over and asks if you are excited. "I can't believe I get to sing live with THE Rachel Berry." You smack him on the arm and tell him that he has no need to flatter you, you already agreed to sing with him. He sees you look up at Finn and you swear you see Sam frown.

"Ok, Rachel and Sam have a song for us today, so take it away you two." Mr Schue sits down and the entire room stops talking and stares at you both like you are from another planet. You stand up and face the group. Finn looks at you and then to Sam and you smile at him because you don't want him to think there is anything going on with Sam. There isn't. Right?

There can't be because you love Finn. You would give anything for him to be with you. But you adore Sam. He has been the most amazing friend through all of this for you. This past week with him has been amazing. He came over every night to practice. He made you laugh everytime you would cry when you talked about Finn. He was slowly becoming one of your most cherished friends.

"Rachel and I wanted to try our hand at a duet, well mostly it started with a dare, but she agreed so here we are." Sam sputters out. You have no idea why all of a sudden he is nervous too. He picks up his guitar and smiles over at you as he starts to sing.

"Take time to realize, that your warmth is crashing down on in." You look over and smile as you sing your line "Take time to realize, that I am on your side didn't I, didn't I tell you." You love this song for him. It suits his voice so well. You don't know why he picked it, but you think its because he wants you to see that he is there for you. That he is on your side, that he will be your friend.

But when he sings his next line you are haunted by the look on his face. "But I can't spell it out for you, no it's never gonna be that simple, no I cant spell it out for you" Suddenly this song is taking a turn and he is looking at you in a way that you remember Finn looking at you when you sang "Don't go Breaking my heart" all those months ago in this very room. And then you realize how naive you have been.

As he sings this song telling you how perfect you are for each other and you just want to stop and run out of the room. How could you not see that all those nights he was comforting you, holding your hand, rubbing your back while you cried, wiping away your tears, it was more for him.

"Just realized what I just realized, we'd never have to wonder if we missed out on each other now." No he can't fall for me. He just can't. If it wasn't for Finn. If it was any other time. If your heart wasn't already given away this would be fine. But it's not. You don't have your heart to give. It belongs to Finn. It will always belong to Finn.

"Realize, Realize" The song ends and he is standing so close to you. The look on his face is so moving that you want to cry. You look over at Finn and he is staring back and forth between the two of you. You can't tell if it is anger or sorrow or what but he starts to get up and leaves the room. You look away from Sam and sit back in your seat. Suddenly you want to be anywhere but here.

You haven't been avoiding him. You haven't. You figure if you keep telling yourself that it will be true. It's been a week since you sang your duet and a week since you have had a conversation with Sam that was longer than "Hey, how are you, I'm great, ok bye"

You see him staring at you from his locker. And you know you need to talk to him. You need to explain. To make things right with him. You know he heard about you and Finn. The whole school has at this point. How he got up in the middle of Spanish class and stood on Mr. Schue's desk and told you he loved you and that you were the only girl for him.

Finn has had detention every day since and the whole school is buzzing about it. Quinn is still mad and has tripped you three times this week but you really don't care. But what you do care about is the fact that Sam seems so hurt by it. You never wanted him to have feelings for you. I mean maybe at one point you thought about it. He is adorable in a dorky kind of way. You love a guy who isn't afraid to be himself. And that's all he has been with you is himself. You don't want to lose that. Because he really is an awesome friend.

You approach him at his locker and he doesn't look at you right away. "I haven't seen you around after school." You say trying to get him to say anything at all to you that isn't "yeah". But he looks at you and says it "Yeah."

"Sam, please talk to me. What did I do wrong? I don't understand why you are mad at me." "I'm not mad at you Rachel. I'm happy for you. I really am. You got Finn back. You got everything you ever wanted." You feel bad suddenly. You understand what it feels like to want something so badly that it hurts. Before you and Finn got together that is all you ever did.

"Look Rachel, we're cool ok. I just haven't seen you around this week" You know he's lying. Because you've see him leaving in his truck after school with his guitar slung over his shoulder as you tried to wave him down. You see him get in his truck and hear the radio turned up loud, some sad country song blaring out the windows.

"I'll always be your friend Sam." You need him to understand you. To believe you. You will always be his friend. You have so much fun with him and you don't want him to disapear from your life. You need him to be your friend. "You just have to understand, my heart belongs to Finn. It always will."

He looks at you, sadness in his eyes, and then he smiles. And its heartbreaking but its real. "It's ok Rachel, like I said, I get it. You love Finn. I don't have to like it, but I understand it." And now its out there. He really did like you didn't he.

"Sam, I don't want to lose you as my friend. These few weeks have been wonderful and my life would be so much less without you in it." "Rachel, I'm not going anywhere, I mean we can hang out sometime." You look up at him. "When?" He looks back at you seriously, "I don't know Rachel, just some time."

You know he's just saying it to make you feel better, but you won't take that from him. "Samuel Evans, we are going to get together this weekend and watch Avatar. I demand it." He laughs. "Yeah I don't know Rachel, Finn might not like it if we hang out on the weekend."

You think about it, he probably wouldn't. You will have to talk to Finn about how you are going to have friends and that you both are going to have to learn to trust each other so that your relationship can go the distance. "How about we have an Avatar party at my house? We can invite the whole Glee club."

He leans against his locker. "I don't think too many people are going to like that." "Stop stalling Sam, we are doing this on Saturday whether you want to or not." You stop talking. You have the biggest grin on your face as you speak. "What can it hurt Sam, I dare you!" He starts laughing loudly and everyone is staring at you both now. "Ok Ok you win. You know I can't back down from a dare. Saturday it is."

"Saturday? What's Saturday?" You look up to see Finn staring at you both confusion and jealousy appearing on his face. "Oh we are having an Avatar viewing party at my house on Saturday for the whole Glee club. Kinda of a relaxer before Nationals. This time we will all be sober and will remember it!" Finn looks at you slightly aprehensive. "And I'm not taking no for an answer!" You stomp your foot and both boys look at each other and laugh. "I guess I'll see you saturday Sam."

With that Finn grabs your hand and you walk off together heading towards his car. You look back and wave at Sam who is still smiling at you and he waves back. Looking up you see Finn staring at you grinning widely. "I love you Rach. You really are amazing." And you are happy. Because you have Finn, and you have a wonderful friend in Sam and so much has changed for you.

And you never see the sad look in Sam's eyes as you and Finn make your way down the hall.

**The End!**

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Stacy - Gleefully-Finchel

I really love the Samchel dynamic even though I am a Finchel shipper at heart. Hope you enjoyed.


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